Jobs at risk in Lancashire after BT cuts shock

File photo dated 05/10/13 of a BT sign. The telecoms giant is to axe around 13,000 jobs over three years as it aims to cut costs. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday May 10, 2018. The company said the job losses would mainly affect back office and middle management roles. See PA story CITY BT. Photo credit should read: Nick Ansell/PA Wire

Published:10:41Thursday 10 May 2018

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BT is to axe around 13,000 jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive.

The company said the job losses would mainly affect back office and middle management roles, with two thirds of the cuts set fall on UK staff

BT employs 2,200 people in Lancashire at several sites – including its Lancashire and Cumbria local business centre in Fulwood, Preston

No specific information has been released by BT on locations or regions affected by the cuts.

Plans were also revealed to exit the BT headquarters in central London, though another site in the capital is expected to house its head office.

The move comes as BT looks to cut costs by around £1.5 billion by the final year of its three-year plan.

The telecoms firm added that it would be hiring around 6,000 new employees “to support network deployment and customer service”.

BT has around 106,400 employees globally, with 82,800 in the UK.

The FTSE 100 firm saw its shares tank on the news, falling as much as 8.8 per cent at the start of trading.

The announcement comes nearly a year after the company said it was to axe 4,000 jobs as part of a restructuring of its Global Services unit.

BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said: “Decisions like this are not easy.”

“We recognise that it is going to affect a lot of people, but ultimately we need to do these things to ensure that we remain a competitive business going forward and that we can benchmark our performance against peer companies,” he told reporters.